Elias Tetirick interview   Save
Wilbur H. Siebert Collection
Description: In this interview, Wilbur H. Siebert recorded the recollections of Elias Tetirick (1819-1901). Tetirick, a Wesleyan Methodist with strong abolitionist convictions, was involved in the Underground Railroad in Jefferson Township, Guernsey County from 1847 until 1865. The interview was part of Siebert's research for his book, "The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom" (1898). According to the interview, freedom-seeking former slaves came to Tetirick's home in Winterset from Senecaville, before moving on to the next station, near Gnaddenhutten in Tuscarawas County. According to his granddaughter, Tetirick buried all papers documenting his work on the Underground Railroad in 1863 because he feared Morgan's Raiders would find them. Confederate troops did pass within a few miles of his house, but did not reach Tetirick's house, a one-room log cabin with a loft used for hiding fugitive slaves. Siebert was a professor of history at the Ohio State University from 1891 until 1935. Between 1892 and 1948, he amassed a wealth of material relating to the Underground Railroad. In the 1940s, he donated the materials to the Ohio Historical Society (now the Ohio History Connection), together with records pertaining to his two other research interests, American Loyalists and East Florida. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1290_1132087_001
Subjects: Civil Liberties; African American Ohioans; Underground Railroad; Fugitive slaves
Places: Winterset (Ohio); Guernsey County (Ohio)